The developers of Lord of the Rings Online have announced their new expansion “Kingdoms of Harad”. With it comes a wealth of new content for veterans and a promise for your characters.
What kind of expansion is this? The developers of Lord of the Rings Online have presented their new expansion at MMORPG.com and revealed what players can experience there.
The new expansion will take players to the eponymous kingdoms of Harad and will conclude the storyline “Song of Waves and Wind”. It also takes place directly after the last expansion “Legacy of Morgoth”.
Together with Gandalf, players will travel deeper into the land of Harad to establish the rule of the Good. The new area will include the region Mûr Ghala, which features four zones showing the scars of Sauron’s rule. In addition to the new zones, players can look forward to many quests.
Here you can watch the trailer for one of the latest expansions:
Over 400 new quests
What do the contents look like? Players can expect over 400 quests in the new expansion Kingdoms of Harad. These will lead the character up to the new maximum level of 160, which will be raised with the expansion.
Also new with the expansion is the voice acting for the “Song of Waves and Wind” main story, which according to the developers will be 95–100% voiced at the time of the expansion’s release.
The developers emphasize in their conversation with MMORPG.com that they want to intentionally tell a story with Gandalf, as the focus should not be on a “Gondor military campaign” but rather on how the simple inhabitants of Middle-earth are doing.
Is an end to level increases planned? The fact that they now want to raise the maximum level to 160 also raises the question of whether they might eventually want to implement a level downscaling like the genre veteran WoW. However, the creators of Lord of the Rings Online do not intend to do that.
They explain that they would be reluctant to carry out a level squish, as it would diminish the effort players have put into their characters. However, the developers do not completely rule out a level squish for the future; it just will not happen in the new expansion.
The new level expansion is also not expected to bring new abilities for the classes; everything will remain the same. A level scaling, where all enemies in the game would be adjusted to the player’s character level, is currently technically not possible.
Even 18 years after the launch of Lord of the Rings Online, the developers continue to work on their MMORPG. The new expansion promises a lot of new content to discover and experience. Even long after the release, players still experience incredible moments: A fan of Lord of the Rings Online walks through Middle-earth on foot, showcasing one of the greatest strengths of the MMORPG
